1. Field of the Invention
The present invention includes memory and an information apparatus which may be applied, for example, to a read only memory, random access memory, or to an apparatus utilizing these memories. The present invention also includes a memory which may increase its capacity with a simplified process. Moreover, the invention includes an information apparatus utilizing this memory by generating data cell regions using a process other than that used to generate the system region to control data cells.
2. Description of the Related Art
Memory may be thought of as any device that can hold data in a machine-readable format. Moreover, a semiconductor may be viewed as material, typically crystalline, which allows current to flow under certain circumstances and may be used to create various integrated circuits. Most memory devices used in the computer industry are built from semiconductor integrated circuits.
In a conventional semiconductor memory, such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), data cells may be formed by a charge accumulation mechanism and are arranged in the shape of a matrix. Access is made to these data cells from a system region. Thereby, data may be written by accumulating charges to the desired data cells corresponding to a cell address. Data is read out by detecting the accumulated charges held in these data cells.
A conventional semiconductor memory is produced through an ultra-fine manufacturing process by forming, on a semiconductor substrate, the data cell regions formed by both the data cells and system regions to control operation of the data cell regions. Such a semiconductor memory has the merits that reliability is high and access time and data transfer time is very short as compared to a magnetic tape represented by a videotape recorder and a disk memory represented by a compact disk.
Creation of conventional semiconductor memory requires large-scale facilities, such as a clean room and stepper, for the ultra-fine manufacturing process. Particularly when memory capacity is increased by modifying a design rule, the facilities for such ultra-fine manufacturing must be updated or newly constructed, raising unit price per bit.